Description: What happens to stepsiblings when the oldest child suddenly becomes the middle child, and the youngest is even younger? This tale delivers four points of view from stepsiblings in a super-unsettled, scrambled-up family.

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Children's Literature Review: What happens when two families are blended into one through a second marriage? Plenty! The four stepsiblings, ages nine to fifteen, give readers their viewpoints in alternating chapters. In addition to coping with a new home filled with more personalities, each must get used to having-and being-stepsiblings along with the differing family dynamics. Birth order plays a significant role because every one of theirs has been changed. The oldest in one family, Lily, is now an in-between. Her youngest brother, Parker, feels even younger with more siblings. The youngest in the other family, V for Vanessa, also becomes an in-between. Even the now eldest, Eric, became that after his older brother died. All feel that more-or at the very least, different-things are expected of them. With much humor, Hicks captures the squabbles but also the closeness of the challenges of family life through the eyes of these participants. The parents come across as decent and caring, trying to work together to ma...

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